"Who made the money?" - Former champ Frank Mir discusses unfair compensation for headlining record-setting UFC 100 PPV opposite Brock Lesnar
Legendary heavyweight Frank Mir is well-known for numerous things. He is a former UFC titleholder whose grappling skills made him the first person to ever defeat Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira via submission. More than that, however, he is best-known to casual fans for his rivalry with pay-per-view star Brock Lesnar.
Back in 2009, the pair headlined UFC 100 in a rematch, generating the most PPV buys in UFC history at the time. Unfortunately, Frank Mir never made more than six figures for his efforts. He recently expressed his frustrations over not earning the millions he believes he deserves for his part in UFC 100's success.
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Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir says "I beat Brock Lesnar, won UFC belt & sold more PPV views than Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder but I’ve never had a $1million payday".👀
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In an interview with talkSPORT, the 265-pound legend spoke about how ludicrous it is that Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder were paid millions of dollars for an event that attracted a number of PPV buys that paled in comparison to the buys he and Lesnar generated for UFC 100.
Meanwhile, he never earned more than six figures:
"I saw a boxing match, the second with Tyson, Wilder, Fury, I think we actually beat their pay-per-view buys. Both of those guys made multiple millions of dollars. I never hit seven figures, you know what I mean? So, that made me realize, 'Oh, wow, I was the main event of that card, and I didn't get seven figures, and these guys got, you know, eight figures!' So that blew my mind."
Back then, Frank Mir was the UFC interim heavyweight champion on a three-fight win streak. Furthermore, he was responsible for having handed Brock Lesnar his first-ever MMA loss. Meanwhile, 'The Beast' defeated Randy Couture to capture the undisputed title and set up a unification bout against Mir.
Their rematch resembled their first encounter in the sense that it involved Lesnar scoring takedowns and battering his opponent on the mat. Instead of falling victim to a submission due to inexperience, he subsequently beat Mir via second-round TKO.
Frank Mir's motorcycle accident ends his short-lived title reign
With the exception of a shocking loss to Ian Freeman in his junior UFC fight, Frank Mir had a nearly spotless record prior to 2006. At UFC 48, he defeated Tim Sylvia via armbar to capture the heavyweight crown. While Herb Dean's decision to end the bout was initially controversial, the referee's instincts were later proven right.
3) Frank Mir snapped Tim Sylvia's arm UFC 48. #yikes https://t.co/AbfpsbeNHl
Sylvia's arm was badly broken by the armbar and were it not for Dean's intervention, his career as a fighter would have been severely shortened. Ironically, Mir himself experienced his own career-threatening ordeal months after the bout.
He was in a motorcycle accident that sidelined him for two years. While he lost his title, he eventually returned in 2006 to resume his MMA career.